As IT resource demands spike, 97% of enterprise IT leaders in the Asia-Pacific region have implemented or plan to implement AI agents in the next two years, according to research from MuleSoft.
However, integration challenges hinder companies from fully realising the technology’s potential to create a limitless digital workforce, which can significantly alleviate IT workloads.
The findings reveal that 95% of APAC respondents struggle to integrate data across systems. Moreover, only 27% of applications are typically connected within enterprises, on average, impacting the accuracy and usefulness of AI agents.
These are based on a survey of 1,050 IT leaders across the globe, for which MuleSoft engaged Vanson Bourne and Deloitte Digital.
Interviews were done between October and November 2024 across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
“AI agents are set to transform enterprises with limitless digital labour, said Andrew Comstock, SVP and general manager of MuleSoft. “We see forecasts of new levels of efficiency and productivity with the unified human and agent workforce.”
Comstock added that in order to unlock this new capacity, integration and APIs are critical to building an agent-ready foundation.
“Agents depend on unified data and enterprise actions, powered by integration and automation, to provide accurate, trusted responses and perform complex, multi-step tasks,” he said.
AI agent outputs depend on connected data that enables a comprehensive understanding of the context and nuances within user queries. These agents gather structured and unstructured data from diverse sources — including CRM, ERP, and HCM, as well as email, PDFs, Slack, and more — and use it to make decisions and take action for any business process.
By integrating their data, systems, and applications, enterprises can tap into a limitless, AI-powered digital labour force that can act autonomously across their business to successfully carry out both simple and complex tasks.
Findings show that IT teams already responsible for maintaining current systems are struggling to meet new demand for AI solutions. The percentage of projects not delivered on time has risen to 27% in 2024 – up from 25% in 2023.
What’s more, 85% of APAC IT leaders expect workloads to rise in the future. On average, surveyed leaders expect a 16% increase in projects from 2024 to 2025.
To meet increased demand, APAC enterprise IT leaders spent an estimated average of $11.2 million on IT staff in 2024, an increase from 2023 (estimated at $10.2 million).
Also, the growing number of applications and AI models used by enterprises creates data silos that can limit agents’ ability to operate effectively.
On average, 93% of APAC IT leaders say data silos are creating business challenges in their organisation. The challenge is greater at enterprises using agents (98%), compared to those not using agents (89%).
By aligning integration and AI strategies, enterprises can simplify and unify their data infrastructure, unlocking the full potential of their data to efficiently power AI agents. Using these tools, agents can access critical, business-specific data to function at their best and extend across the enterprise to interact directly with existing systems and automation.
Among APAC firms with agents, those using APIs are taking advantage of their capabilities to improve IT infrastructure (50%), enable data sharing across teams (48%), and automate workflows (46%).
In addition to enabling AI agents to access services, databases, and functionalities provided by applications, IT leaders also highlight the significant business value of APIs – from increasing efficiencies to impacting revenue.
APAC enterprises using APIs report these top benefits — increased productivity (52%), increased speed in meeting business demands (49%), and teams can manage their own IT needs (46%).
